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Rajneeshpuram, they found proof in the commune’s decommission, that is, disarm, as a precondition of
laboratory, registered as Pythagoras Clinic, where joining the peace talks. A majority of the leadership
another follower, Ma Anand Puja, grew the salmo- voted to call the cease-fire; a small group of dis-
nella typhimurium cultures. senters, led by Micky McKevitt, walked out.
In 1986, Sheela was convicted of masterminding McKevitt and the others considered decommis-
the salmonella poisoning, as well as the poisoning of sioning to be a betrayal of the IRA’s goals and
two Wasco County officials, the attempted poisoning believed it would lead to the defeat of its ideal of a
of Swami Devaraj, Rajneesh’s physician, setting fire united Ireland. (The IRA considers itself to be the
to a county office, and arranging more than 400 sham lawful army of the Irish Republic as envisioned in
marriages. Two other commune members, both the declaration of Easter 1916, which first proclaimed
British women, were later jailed for conspiracy to kill the Irish Republic. Decommissioning would suggest
the Oregon State attorney general Charles Turner, a that its existence as a standing army of a sovereign
long-time enemy of Rajneeshpuram. Rajneesh, who state is not legitimate.) McKevitt and his colleagues
had fled the commune in 1985, was later arrested on established a political party: The 32-County
immigration fraud charges and deported; he returned Sovereignty Committee, led by Bernadette Sands-
to Poona, where he changed his name to Zen Osho McKevitt (sister of Bobby Sands, an IRA terrorist and
and established another commune. He died of heart martyr), and an armed wing called the Real IRA, or
failure in January 1990. sometimes the True IRA, reflecting their belief that
their organization has not deviated from the original
See also BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM
Republican ideal. The Real IRA is estimated to have
between 30 and 50 members, almost all of whom are
Further Reading
former IRA members with expertise and experience in
Gordon, James S. The Golden Guru: The Strange Journey the arts of war, including bomb making.
of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Lexington, MA: S. Greene; The Real IRA immediately began bombings and
New York: Viking Penguin, 1987. attacks on British soldiers and Northern Irish police
McCormack, Win, ed. The Rajneesh Chronicles. Portland: officers; between the fall of 1997 and the summer of
New Oregon, 1987.
Milne, Hugh. Bhagwan: The God That Failed. New York: 1998, the Real IRA is believed to have been involved
St. Martin’s, 1986. in eight bombings or attempted bombings. On August
15, 1998, Real IRA members left a 500-pound car
bomb in the market square of Omagh, a town in
REAL IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY Northern Ireland. A warning was phoned to the police
10 minutes before the bomb exploded. Police
response to this warning was tragic—whether the
The Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) is a warning was deliberately misleading or whether the
splinter group of the Irish Republican Army (IRA); it police misunderstood it—the result was that the police
is responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing in County cleared the area near the town’s courthouse and
Tyrone, Northern Ireland. directed people toward the market square and the
Since 1969, the IRA has carried out various terror- bomb. The explosion killed 29 and injured more than
ist attacks and assassinations, attempting to compel 200—making it the deadliest single bombing in
the British Army to withdraw from Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict. The bombing was
The IRA also wants to reunite Northern Ireland condemned by the IRA; several days later, the Real
with the Republic of Ireland. In the summer of 1997, IRA issued an apology, stating that the death of inno-
after several years of secret peace talks and two previ- cent civilians had not been its intent. In January 2002,
ous cease-fires, the IRA’s governing body, the Army Colm Murphy was convicted of conspiring to cause
Council, met to discuss whether the IRA should again the explosion. McKevitt is being tried under new
declare a cease-fire to enable delegates from its politi- laws against terrorism on charges of belonging to an
cal arm, the Sinn Féin Party, to join proposed public illegal organization and directing the activities of The
peace negotiations. The Army Council debated Real IRA.
fiercely about the proposed cease-fire, because of In September 1998, the Real IRA declared a cease-
British government expectations that the IRA would fire. Some sources believe that Real IRA members